Transitioning to Vegan

Hello all. Some of you who know me on Facebook or in person may be aware that I've been focusing a lot on animal rights issues, baking vegan treats, and talking about a vegan diet in general. I have decided that I am transitioning to a vegan diet and lifestyle mainly for animal rights reasons but also for health and world sustainability/green reasons. For me, it feels like the right thing to do!

It's been a gradual process but I am making a lot of progress. I've gone from eating meat or fish about twice a day to eating meat/poultry about once per week and fish a few times a week. I remember a while back when someone mentioned the idea of just eating meat once per day I thought, wow, that would be so hard. But really, it has just become easier and easier. I've also transitioned slowly from drinking lots of milk at home, almost two gallons per week between me and my boyfriend, to about a half gallon of raw organic milk per week. In fact, yesterday when my boyfriend who is loving all of the new milk choices grabbed almond, coconut, hemp, and cow/s milk at the store and I asked him to put one of them back he chose to put back the cow's milk! I knew we were really making progress then. The final frontier will be the half and half in my coffee and sea food for sure.

It's a progression because it's about not only saying good bye to all of the things you are used to eating but learning to prepare new things in new ways.. and with our busy schedules that takes time. I'm also just learning about all of the restaurants and stores in the area that offer vegan choices and it's going to now take a little bit of time to swap out the places that don't have those choices. However, the more I educate myself I find that I am not really sacrificing much but rather refocusing on a whole new culinary world of delicious, healthy food!

In addition, I have decided that the culinary career I am pursuing will be vegan. So, I am currently seeking out vegan chefs in the area that will allow me to assist them so that I can learn the ropes. I am also experimenting at home with cooking vegan dishes and baking with vegan ingredients.

Where will this leave Yummy Happy Rainbow? I am not sure yet. In an attempt to simplify my life I have not been taking pictures and posting about everything that I eat. One of the reasons I quit my full-time job almost 2 months ago was to reduce stress. I'd be stupid to swap that stress out with the stress of trying to create some great blog.. even if my handful of readers want that. There is also not much of a reason for me to document my vegan finds and progress when there are a ton of resources out there for anyone interested in those kinds of things. So, I am taking a break from the blog for now until I decide what I want to do with it. Once I kick off some sort of vegan career I may start a new blog then.

Thanks everyone!!

-Alexis

Chicken-less Chicken Noodle Soup

This sounds really strange but one day when I was making my delicious chicken noodle soup I realized that I needed to go buy chicken so I did everything I had to do with the soup except add the chicken. It tasted so good without it that I thought, "I could make this without the chicken and it would still be great." So, that is just what I did this time.

I am trying to cut back on meat and poultry for many reasons but I still love the taste of meaty things. I have found lately that a little goes a long way, if any at all. So, I used my delicious celery and carrots from JR Organics, along with the other ingredients in my soup recipe. It tastes nice and chickeny because of the Better than Bouillon and the poultry seasoning I use (I know, this is not a true vegetarian recipe). I also tried using organic whole wheat angel hair pasta with Jerusalem artichoke flour, it's funny how angel hair shaped pasta is often the easiest to use whole wheat, brown rice, etc because of it's fine texture.. it tastes just like the regular stuff.

You might not miss the chicken at all.. don't knock it 'till you try it. : )

Farfalle and Salmon Salad

This is a quick salad with a straightforward formula: pasta plus cold veggies (salmon or tuna optional.)

In this case I mixed up my JR Organics (JRO) spinach, lettuce, and carrots. Then, I boiled some bow-tie shaped pasta (farfalle) and towards the end of the boiling process I threw in some JRO peas. I drained the pasta and peas and then added a can of salmon (preferably you would use fresh salmon because of the BPA in the cans but this is good in a pinch.) I tossed everything with the veggies in our favorite dressing and voila! A one-dish healthy and light meal.

Sauteed Broccoli with Radishes and Garlic and more JR Organics Produce

I never ever would have thought to cook radishes but now that I have my weekly box of fresh organic produce, it's so much fun thinking up new recipes to make.

I just chopped the broccoli with the stems and sliced radishes and garlic very thin. I sauteed everything up with the some olive oil and it made a great side dish or mini-meal (pictured below). I topped it with some coarsely shredded Pecorino Romano cheese.

For our second week of produce, we received many of the same items as last week but instead of chard we got spinach. Instead of regular carrots and oranges we got blood oranges and red carrots! I also swapped some celery and radishes with some kale and peas.

Here are the lovely red carrots we got, light orange on the inside!

Blood oranges

And here are the super cute peas and spinach!

Cupcake Weekend

Got some cuppies from Vanilla Bakeshop: passion fruit, chocolate peanut butter, and chocolate raspberry. Also got from BabyCakes: Banana, Red Velvet, and Chocolate. YUM!

Oh, I must have eaten the chocolate peanut butter one before I took this picture.

Cooking with JR Organics Farm Produce

With the eleven items in our first box of produce, I can already tell we'll have more than enough fabulous fresh fruits and veggies each week to keep us healthy and happy! It's also exciting to have a bunch of things that I might not normally put together so I consider it a challenge to work with some new combinations. I feel like I am cooking in an episode of Chopped.

First, nothing beats fresh fruit for breakfast to get the day started right. I often find that folks who might not grab fruit from the kitchen have no problems grabbing fruit that's nicely chopped and placed in front of them, such as these delicious apples and strawberries:


I LOVE the smell of fresh Rosemary, so I put it out on the coffee table as an air freshener.



I happened to have some organic chicken breast in the house, and since I love chicken with rosemary, inspiration struck! I decided I would make a roasted vegetable pasta primavera with chicken and rosemary.

I started by marinating the chicken in rosemary, sliced spring onions, white wine, and a little olive oil for a few hours.



Then, I sauteed the chicken up. The onions and rosemary became nice and tender with a little char. Yum.

I

I sliced up carrots, broccoli (stems and all), more scallions, and more rosemary. I tossed these veggies in a little oil and then put them in the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes until they were soft and toasty. This picture shows the veggies raw.



In the mean time I cut up the chicken and cooked some organic whole wheat penne. When the veggies were done, I tossed everything together with some olive oil and salt and made sure it was all heated through. Then I topped it with Pecorino Romano cheese. We had this for dinner with a delicious salad of butter lettuce, radishes, and avocados.

Yay for LA Food Trucks!

Can you believe there are dozens of food trucks on the streets of LA now? I am not just talking about your typical Mexican food truck, but rather gourmet Korean tacos, cupcakes, dim sum, and so much more. A few weeks ago many of them participated in the First Annual Street Food Fest. I've only tried a couple of these trucks' fare but I plan to try a whole lot more.

One that I have tried is the NomNom Truck which serves up Banh Mi (Vietnamese Sandwiches). The pork and lemongrass chicken in the yummy baguettes were delicious. This is great for folks like us on the west side with limited access to Vietnamese food. We also stumbled upon the Dim Sum Truck on its soft launch day and tried their very tasty turnip cakes (see photo above). I can't wait to try more truck food!

The best way to keep track of where these food trucks are is Twitter. But if you don't feel like signing up for that, this awesome site : Find LA Food Trucks has widgets with all of the Twitter feeds.. it's a one truck stop! : )

Oh, and About.com has a list of some of the trucks with quick summaries.

Got our first box of produce from JR Organics Farm!

I am so happy about our first box of fresh, local organic produce from JR Organics. Everything is just so fresh and beautiful and I can't wait to try everything. We got (all for $30!), organic:

• 2 heads of lettucs (red and butter)
• Swiss chard although to me it looks like bok choy
• Easter egg radish.. now I see why they call it that because of the beautiful mix of round radishes that look like Easter eggs!
• broccoli
• FAT Spring onions
• cute bumpy little carrots
• rosemary
• strawberries
• four avocados
• four oranges
• three huge apples

Check out the photos below. Any recipe ideas??

Yummy egg "salad" sandwich brunch!

I just love adding greens or other veggies plus a tasty dressing to a fried egg and toast. It just lightens everything up. Here I fried up a free range egg and threw it on my favorite toasted bread. I blanched some kale and put it in there too. What you don't see is the "sauce" made of olive oil and a thin restaurant-style salsa. I spread it on the bread and dipped the sammy in the extras. YUM!

Yummy Healthy Juices!

I've been using my new Breville juicer a lot lately. Mostly, I have been making carrot orange juice (pictured above) and Natalia Rose's Green Lemonade (pictured below) which is just:

• 1 head Romaine lettuce
• a handful of dark leafy greens such as kale
• 1 lemon
• 1 apply

Juice it all up and drink! Surprisingly, it tastes excellent and is a great way to get a bunch of antioxidants, enzymes, soluble fiber and other goodness all in one yummy glass.

I can't wait to juice more!

It Aint Easy Being Green

My boyfriend and I watched an interesting documentary last night titled "No Impact Man." It's about a NYC family who decided to go "no impact" for a year, meaning they produced no or little trash (including no toilet paper or paper towels), used no cars or planes, ate only local foods, bought nothing except food, and even went without electricity. It was really inspiring and so it's renewed my interest in being more green and also being aware of the chemicals in the products we use. I actually found the wife in the film particularly inspiring because she was very used to drinking Starbucks and shopping and eating out and she reluctantly gave up all of those things for the project and turned out very happy in the end.

I'll keep this quick, but I just want to share a few resources with you. To learn more about the No Impact project and ways that you can lower your impact, check out the links below. Particularly interesting is the experiment to go no impact for a week. No Impact Man provides full instructions on doing this at his site.

Also, check out a few new resources I found for re-usable, BPA-freee, Phthalate-free products. This is a follow-up from my previous post about using plastics.

What have I been doing you might ask? Well, my transformation is slow but steady:

• I stopped using my non-stick pan (Telflon gets into your food).
• I stopped microwaving in plastic except for the occasional Lean Cuisine when I am feeling desperate. I actually stopped microwaving in general except when I am in a pinch.
• I replaced my plastic cutting boards and cooking utensils with wooden and metal ones.
• I found a Phthalate-free, Paraben-free, No-animal testing shampoo that I actually like and so I am going to try their conditioner next (Nature's Gate Organics)
• I stopped using plastic water bottles and have been using metal instead
• I bought a bunch of fabric shopping bags and I always bring them to the grocery store with me. I also bring plastic bags I have used before for putting meats and loose veggies in.
• I stopped buying and eating canned foods (the can lining contains BPA) with the exception of Eden Organic Beans because they don't use BPA in their cans.
• I recycle everything (but what I really need to do is reduce.)

For my next steps,

• I am going to get rid of all the plastic in my kitchen and replace it with glass, metal, wood, etc.
• I am going to get glass, metal, and cloth lunch containers and use them to pack my lunches and my boyfriend's lunches.
• I am going to replace our skin and hair products with Phthalate-free products.
• I am going to decide upon a Community Supported Agriculture program in my area and sign up!
• I am going to make an effort to reduce trash. I really need to read up on how to do that though.
• I am going to start using natural cleaning products like the ones mentioned in the film such as vinegar and Borax

Resources

No Impact Links:

• No Impact Project: Learn the techniques they used and how to do it yourself.
• No Impact Man Blog
• No Impact Man Book
• No Impact Man Film: Watch it and get inspired!

Other Resources:

• BPA, PVC, and Phthalate-free food storage containers
• Lunch Skins: Super cute re-usable sandwich and snack bags
• Graze: More super-cute re-usable bags, all organic
• Nicole Harter's Healthy Pregnancy Blog: Nicole was a fellow-student at Bentley with me and has since become a holistic health counselor and started a great blog about healthy pregnancies including information about chemicals to avoid. Check it out!

Canyon Ranch Albondigas

I made this Mexican meatball soup for a friend a few weeks ago and she really liked it so I am fulfilling my promise to post the recipe. There are a couple of things to note and a couple of modifications I would make.. For one, I didn't feel like dirtying up a food processor to puree the Pico de Gallo. I liked the way it came out but if you do puree it you'll probably get a more tomatoey broth. Second, I think I'd prefer to use rice instead of potatoes next time because I am not a big fan of potatoes in my soup. Finally, I would use more of the herbs because I didn't taste a lot of the cilantro and mint coming through. The recipe posted below however is how it is written in the book,.

This recipe is taken from the "Canyon Ranch Cooks" cookbook. I usually don't post recipes from cookbooks but this book has been out for a while so I am making an exception. It's a good book and I'd recommend checking it out.

Albondigas

Meatball Ingredients

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1/2 cup cooked white rice
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh mint
• 1 Tablespoon minced fresh garlic
• 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 whole egg
• 1/4 cup minced yellow onion
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Soup Ingredients

• 1.5 quarts chicken stock
• 3/4 cup Pico de Gallo, pureed
• 1 cup peeled diced potatoes
• 1 cup peeled diced carrots
• 1 cup peeled diced celery
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325. Lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil.
2. Combine all ingredients for meatballs in a large bowl. Mix well. Portion about 2 Tablespoons, about 1 ounce, and form into a ball with wet hands. Place on baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until cooked through. Do not overcook.
3. Heat chicken stock in a large saucepan. Add pureed salsa and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Add vegetables, cilantro, salt, and meatballs. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.

Makes 10 servings, 135 calories each

Quick, Easy, and Healthy Week-Night Dinners

I don't know about you, but I'm gone most of the day working hard and earning my pay check. By the time I get home at 7:00 pm I'm tired and hungry and most days am in no mood to start chopping and cooking and messing up the kitchen. So, most of my week-days we have simple to prepare but healthy meals that are cheap but also low in calories. How do I do it???

One way I do it is with Trader Joe's. There are a hand-ful of items I try to keep in the house that, when paired with a salad (also made with Trader Joe's pre-washed greens, baby tomatoes, olives, and other things that don't need a cutting board) make a fantastic meal. Check out the freezer section of Trader Joe's and pick out your own items or try my picks below:

- Gnocci alla Sorrentino (frozen - shown above)
- Flatbread pizzas (frozen)
- Any of the Indian entrees for two (dry goods) paired with frozen naan thrown in the toaster.\

Check out the stir-frys and frozen complete meals for 2 or more. But check the calories per serving and determine what would be realistic for your portion size.

Yummy Asian Shrimp Salad

I threw this really simple salad together last weekend and it came out really well. See those dark green things on the top? Those are strips of teriyaki nori and I am really enjoying throwing them on all kinds of stuff lately. They have a ton of nutrients but are pretty salty so watch out for that. This salad consists of:

• Baby spinach
• Arugala
• Shrimp
• Tomatoes
• Edamame (cooked)
• Sliced almonds
• Dressing of toasted sesame oil and seasoned rice vinegar
• Topped with teryiaki nori strips
• YUMM
  

Homemade Brown Rice Sushi

I made some delicious brown rice sushi this weekend. It's pretty simple to make, very healthy, and low-calorie. Start with some regular short-grain brown rice and once it's cooked, add seasoned rice vinegar to taste. You don't need to buy special brown sushi rice. You'll also need some sheets of nori seaweed and a bamboo sushi roller. You can get this kind of stuff cheaply at a Japanese market like Mitsuwa. The rest of it is up to you. I made some California rolls and some vegetable rolls. Sea weed like nori is highly nutritious with a lot of calcium, iron, potassium, vitamin A, protein, and trace minerals (all things that are good for the pre-natal ladies ; )

Juicetastic!!

We just got our new juicer in the mail and made our first fresh, organic juice with carrots, oranges, and apples. It was delicious!!


We got the Breville JE95XL Two-Speed Juice Fountain Plus It's super-powerful! Here are some photos below.

Gingered Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup

I'm really enjoying having veggie soups for dinners this week. I hope I can keep this healthy habit up! I found this recipe in the January/February edition of Women's Health Magazine. It's delicious, healthy, and pretty quick easy to make if you have a food processor.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium chopped onion
• 1 cup broth
• 1 medium sweet potato (really yam) peeled and chopped
• 5 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• About an inch of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
• Greek yogurt, cream or other garnish (optional)

Instructions:

• Heat oil in a pot or large saucepan. Add onion and cook until soft, a few minutes.
• Add broth plus 2 cups water, then add sweet potato, carrot, and ginger.
• Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer until veggies are tender, about 15 minutes.
• Strain out veggies and place in food processor. Puree until smooth, adding a bit of broth if needed. Pour puree back into pot and stir until well-blended and smooth.
• Season with salt and pepper, garnish (optional) and enjoy!

4 Servings, 119 calories each

North Meets South Soup

I just made my first real healthy recipe of the new year (besides those beet greens I made earlier today which were really a throw-together.) It came out great so I am sharing it with you here. I call it "North Meets South" soup because it uses "great northern beans" which seem to be from the north and "collard greens" which we know are from the south. This tastes like a Tuscan soup and I adapted it from the Escarole and Bean Soup recipe here. As an Italian, I love escarole but they didn't have any at the store today but they did have some beautiful organic collard greens. Collard greens are really a super food, especially if you are pregnant, because they are loaded with vitamins K, A, and C as well as calcium and folate. And the beans are great too, also with a lot of folate, fiber, calcium, and protein. It's about 200 calories per serving and super easy to make. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 5 cloves minced or crushed garlic
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 (15 oz) cans great northern beans, rinsed. You can substitute navy bean or another white bean. I used Eden beans because they are organic and BPA free.
  
• 1 quart (4 cups) chicken broth. You could also use veggie broth to make this vegan. I use Better than Bouillon because I love the taste and it's convenient.
• 2 cups collard greens, washed, then cut into quarters lengthwise (keeping the stem in). Then, cut that into 1/2 " strips and measure out.
  

Instructions

1. Use a few tablespoons of the broth to cook the onions and garlic together over medium heat in the bottom of a soup pot until they are transparent but not brown.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook until the greens are tender.
3. That's it! Serve with fresh ground pepper and grated Parmesan or Romano cheese if desired.
   

Healthy New Year's Resolutions

Hey everyone. So, I've pretty much been eating and drinking anything I've wanted over the past 6 weeks. It was the holidays! Now that it's January I am excited to be getting on to a healthier track. It can be a full time job just keeping up with the latest in nutrition and health, but what I have learned in my spare time this year has convinced me to make the following changes. Note that I am NOT giving up my chicken wings and churros and all those other yummies that make life happier. But, when I am cooking at home I resolve to do the following most of the time (this is stuff I have been building up to so it's not as drastic a change as it seems). Now, if this bores you and you're disappointed that you might not be reading about yummy unhealthy foods, no need to worry, as I've mentioned, this is not a full-time thing so there should still be something for everyone on this blog.

• Buy only organic unless there is no choice. This includes fruit, veggies, grains, dairy, eggs, and meats/poultry.
• Try to eat poultry or meat only once per day.
• Make sure I get three servings of fish/seafood per week (that's pretty easy for me).
• Eat only low mercury fish/seafood (no swordfish, king mackerel, shark, or golden snapper).
  
• Supplements: Take my omega 3's and experiment with coconut oil supplements as well. Take 1000mg of folic acid a day or make sure I get it from food.
• Eat more super foods, especially those for pregnant women (I am NOT pregnant but it's never too soon to start loading up on calcium, iron, and zinc, if anything just to get into the habit.
• I've gradually replaced my plastic and non-stick utensils and cookware with only metal, wood, and bamboo. This included cutting boards, spatulas, etc.
• Never microwave in plastic. Try to reduce microwaving as much as possible.
• Replaced plastic water bottles with metal.
• No more canned foods unless they are BPA free. This pretty much just leaves Eden beans. This is pretty ridiculous since I grew up eating canned tomatoes but what can I say.
• Minimal processed foods such as frozen dinners (which pretty much forced me to microwave in plastic).
• Slowly incorporate more raw foods into my diet.
• Start juicing! Ordered my juicer yesterday and I can't wait to get it. My goal is to get at least one good veggie juice in me per day.

I'll post stuff as I go along. Wish me luck!!!

A healthy start to the new year

Just picked up some local, organic beet greens at the farmer's market. Sauteed them up with a little onion, soy, and sesame.